


passenger seat

by Solovei



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Chocolate Box Exchange, Driving, Inspired by Music, Just dark country roads and Adam having feelings, Kissing, M/M, No Spoilers, Pre-Epilogue, Treat Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-30
Updated: 2017-01-30
Packaged: 2018-09-20 20:10:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9511232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Solovei/pseuds/Solovei
Summary: In which Ronan pops the question. No, not that one.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kiraly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiraly/gifts).



> This little fic is inspired by the song "passenger seat" by Death Cab for Cutie. I don't know if it QUITE hits on all the things in your letter, but I hope you like it :)

Adam didn’t expect to fall in love with this place. If he were pressed, he would say he probably loves it at least half as much as he loves Ronan. It isn’t just because this is where they became what they are - he figures if it hadn’t happened here, it would have just happened somewhere else, although maybe in a different way. Adam fell in love with The Barns because it offered an alternative. Very quickly, he realized that it would be so easy to give in to the things it promised: freedom from the expectations of others, from needing to constantly push himself so far past his limits he forgot they existed. Every time he came, it took all of his willpower not to stay. This was a way out and he hated himself for being so easily swayed.

~~~

He can feel the exhaustion buzzing just behind his eyelids. The glowing clock on the BMW dashboard reads 1:43 as they each close the doors with varying degrees of ferocity. Just outside the window ancient evergreens loom like giants, dark spires that seem to absorb all the light around them. Further down, surrounded by Ronan’s dream fireflies, the house is a tiny vessel in a sea of spilled ink. As they pull out from the gravel driveway, he rolls down the window and takes a deep breath of the country air.

Ronan is driving him home. It's 30 minutes from the Barns to the outskirts of Henrietta, another fifteen to St. Agnes. These 45-minute chunks have been, for Adam, a sort of liminal space existing between the person he allows himself to be here, and the person he needs to be everywhere else. They are quiet segues between the time they spend as ‘Ronan and Adam’ and ‘Ronan, Adam’. The silence between them is not quite comfortable, but not strained either. Ronan reaches to turn on the stereo but withdraws his hand at the last second.

They're about halfway to the city limits when Ronan pulls the car over, kills the headlights and the engine. Here, it’s just a deserted road, a blanket of stars, and farms in between. No Henrietta, but no Barns either. Adam feels small, a tiny speck in a metal cage, dwarfed by the universe. He shivers in his thin hoodie, examining this feeling for a few moments before looking at the clock, then at Ronan. 

“Why did we stop?” Adam asks.

Ronan smiles weakly, not meeting his eyes. “Just thinking…. What if we didn't have to do this anymore?”

Adam feels his mouth form a thin line. “I'm fine driving myself, you know, if you don't want--”

“No, not _this_ , it's--” Ronan groans around the words he can't or won't say, looking everywhere except at Adam. A long moment passes before he speaks again.

“What if… what if you stayed? At the Barns, I mean.”

Without thinking about it, Adam feels his mouth pull up into a smirk. “Are you asking me to move in with you, Lynch?” 

Ronan turns to face him, leaning close, a playful light flickering in his blue eyes. “So what if I am?” 

Adam claims those waiting lips, leaning awkwardly over the gearshift. “Hmm, Gansey says you’re a terrible roommate.” 

“Yeah?”

“Drinking milk from the carton.” Another kiss. “Leaving your laundry all over the place.” One more. Ronan moves closer, trailing his kisses down Adam’s jawline and to his neck. 

“Yeah, I’m a fucking riot,” Ronan shoots back with a crooked smile.

“I… I’m still going to university, Ro. I can’t… I worked too hard to give that up now.”

Ronan doesn’t say anything, but Adam knows what his reply would be. Go, and return to me. Go, knowing you can come back home. 


End file.
